Fuel Processing Technology 103 (2012) 178–182

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Fuel Processing Technology

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Environmental treatment of slaughterhouse wastes in a continuously stirred

anaerobic reactor: Effect of flow rate variation on biogas production
A. Marcos a, A. Al-Kassir a,⁎, F. López a, F. Cuadros a, P. Brito b
a
Escuela de Ingenierías Industriales, Universidad de Extremadura Avda de Elvas s/n, 06071, Badajoz, Spain
b
Escola de Tecnología y Gestao, IPP, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The present study shows the treatment of slaughterhouse wastes of Badajoz municipal in Spain by an anaerobic
Received 24 May 2011 codigestion process. The experimental device used was a completely mixed type (6-l capacity) continuous bio-
Received in revised form 27 December 2011 digester with recirculation of the methane produced in the anaerobic digestion. Under mesophilic conditions
Accepted 28 December 2011
(37 °C), the biological anaerobic degradation, biogas production, and inhibition processes were analyzed for
Available online 21 January 2012
six flow rates; 200, 275, 350, 400, 537, and 672 ml/day. It was found that the environmental optimum flow
Keywords:
rate is 350 ml/day for energy production.
Slaughterhouse waste © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Anaerobic biodigestion
Flow rate
Biogas

1. Introduction sewage system. In the case of Extremadura, without due measures

There are several methods for biological elimination of animal
wastes and cattle. The principal thermal aim is getting a biogas rich
in methane, in order to monetize the process. Among them is the fer-
mentation of wastes from poultry slaughterhouses and cattle [1,2]
with little production of biogas and that of anaerobic biodigestion
can generate more amount of biogas [3].
Moreover, slaughterhouse wastes are among the most contami-
nating of meat industries. These generally contain organic matter,
fats, suspended solids, phosphates, nitrates, nitrites, and sodium chlo-
ride. The sources of these contaminants are: from the stalls, excreta,
and cleaning and disinfection water; from the slaughteryard, blood,
hair, meat scraps, fat, bones, and belly contents; and, from the rendering
rooms, hot water used in processing stomachs and intestines, and caus-
tic solutions and detergents used in cleaning and disinfecting.
It is shown that the anaerobic biodigestion is a good process for
the elimination of meat wastes and provides the necessary technolo-
gy to eliminate fats and protein residues efficiently [4].
Since there exist plants for melting down the fats, processing the
offal, and converting blood into animal feed or fertilizer, and the exis-
tence of a good market for these by-products, it is unfortunate that a
large proportion of them end up in the public sewage network. This
has led to ever stricter legislation aimed at impeding the discharge
of meat industry wastes into the environment, and at insisting on
the need to treat the wastewater before being released into the
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: aawf@unex.es (A. Al-Kassir).
being taken, the annual contamination from meat industries has
been quantified as some 4.5 million EH [5,6].
As a contribution to solving this environmental problem, for several
years now there has been an ongoing research program in the Alterna-
tive Sources and Renewable Energies Laboratory of the Industrial Engi-
neering School of the University of Extremadura: The first results on the
biodegradation of slaughterhouse solid and liquid wastes were
obtained using a batch reactor [6]. They formed the basis for the design
and construction of a continuous-flow stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) type
continuous digester.
There are various tests and trials that have been carried out with
co-digestion and anaerobic digestion, in order to obtain a biogas
that makes the treatment profitable. Among them are the elevation
of pressure and temperature in the process of digestion or in the pre-
treatment, that have not provided good results [7], or those that pro-
vide an increase in lipids or change the structure of the bacterial
community of reactors [8], also with some discrete results.
With regard to the saponification of the lipids in slaughterhouse
wastes during the process of pretreatment or the use of ethanol bio-
degradation, it has been shown that it improves biogas production
and in some cases the reaction kinetics [9,10], but the results are
not too bright for a definitive incorporation into the process.
Since the influent flow rate is a fundamental factor in the design of
a real anaerobic waste treatment plant, one of the first tasks with the
continuous digester was to determine the value of this parameter that
optimized conjointly biogas production and biodegradation. There is
work in the literature on the effect of varying the flow rate in batch
anaerobic digesters [11], but references to continuous digesters are
difficult to find and to be known its influence.

0378-3820/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fuproc.2011.12.035
 A. Marcos et al. / Fuel Processing Technology 103 (2012) 178–182 179

ease of cleaning the systems, it being unnecessary to halt or unmount

Nomenclature
the components of the digester, and the scalability of the system to
digesters of different sizes.
COD chemical oxygen demand
The amount of biomass in the digester is maintained by means of
BOD5 biological oxygen demand
an overflow. Surplus biomass can be led off to a secondary digester or
SMA specific methanogenic activity
to an appropriate deposit.
EH equivalent inhabitants
VS volatile solids
WWTP wastewater treatment plant
2.2. Secondary digester/degassifier (2)

The design of the secondary digester as a (6-l capacity) movable

The principal objective of the present work was therefore to deter-
rigid bell jar presents the following advantages:
mine the effect of influent flow rate on the biogas production and the
decontamination of solid and liquid wastes from the Badajoz municipal
Ease of monitoring the volume of biogas produced the movable bell
slaughterhouse using a continuous CSTR-type digester.
allows a visual reading of the accumulated biogas.
Safety the liquid content forms a barrier that is impermeable to
2. Experimental procedure
the biogas. Surplus biogas or biogas produced within the
bell jar is completely sealed off, and can be led of to a secure
The experimental CSTR-type digester consisted of a 6-l tank mixed
place (burner, a Tedlar gas sampling bag, or simply to the
by means of forced convection of methane produced in the anaerobic
exterior). Fire risks and bad odours are thus totally
digestion (Fig. 1). The digester was primed with a suitable volume of
obviated.
anaerobic sludge from the Badajoz sewage treatment plant. The com-
The possibility of secondary digestion the gasometer can operate as
ponents of the digester were the following:
a secondary digester, with a second accumulation of the ef-
(1) Primary digester/reactor (stirred tank) fluent (without temperature control). It can also operate
(2) Secondary digester/degassifier without secondary digestion by being filled with clean
(3) Control system water. In the secondary digester mode, it has a purging sys-
(4) Pumping equipment tem for sampling the settled sludge, and an overflow sys-
(5) Heating system tem that is analogous to that of the primary digester for
(6) Substrate tank the control of the level.
(7) Feed stream
(8) Gas stream
(9) Slurry stream
(10) Product slurry stream 2.3. Control system (3)
(11) Sampling
The control system comprises the elements that control the influent
2.1. Primary digester/reactor (stirred tank) (1) and digester temperature and mixing systems. It consists of a locker, a
control element, and electrical elements.
The primary digester is of the CSTR type, heated and with com-
plete mixing. Its volume is 6.2 l. Given the scale, and that the equip-
ment is for indoor use, there is no problem in maintaining the 2.4. Pumping equipment (4)
temperature by means of ceramic resistances installed at the bottom
of the digester, fed a security current at 24 V. A peristaltic pump draws the gas off from the digester, and, under
The influent flow rate to the digester is controlled by a peristaltic- the control of a programmable automaton connected to electrical
type dosing pump at either a constant or a programmed rate. Mixing valves and a collector, recirculates the gas to mix the slurry in the
is by means of re-compressing the biogas that is produced in the di- tank or leads the surplus gas off to the secondary digester or to the
gestion process. Two major advantages of this arrangement are the bell jar for storage.

4
2

3 1 9
6 10

5
11

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a continuous anaerobic digestion pilot plant.

180 A. Marcos et al. / Fuel Processing Technology 103 (2012) 178–182

2.5. Heating system (5)
The digester is heated by a novel system of PTC-type ceramic car-
tridges. These cartridges have a very smooth and uniform heating
characteristic. The also have a safety system that stops the liquid sur-
passing 80 °C in case of inappropriate handling (a situation that
would otherwise cause the destruction of the biomass, among other
consequences).
2.6. Substrate tank (6)
The substrate storage tank has a capacity of 3 l. It is a hermetic
glass cylinder, with a graduated scale to monitor the flow rate. It is
equipped with a mechanical stirrer to maintain the homogeneity of
the substrate before this is fed into the primary digester.
2.7. Feed stream (7)
The substrate is fed into the digester by means of a peristaltic dosing
pump. This is under the control of the automaton which is programmed
to dose the daily amount of influent by timing and flow rates. The sub-
strate enters the digester through a neoprene tube connected to the
pump.
2.8. Gas stream (8)
One part of the biogas produced in the digester is pumped back
into the digester, and another part is stored in the bell jar or secondary
digester. All the associated plumbing is PVC:
2.9. Slurry stream (9)
A slurry stream can be set up between the overflows of the prima-
ry and secondary digesters using PVC tubing.
2.10. Product slurry stream (10)
The degraded slurry from both primary and secondary digesters is
led of through the installed overflows.
2.11. Sampling (11)
Taps on the lower part of the primary and of the secondary di-
gesters allow samples to be taken.
The optimal composition of the substrate that the biodigester
would allow without inhibition of the process was, according to our
experimental data, 84% wastewater, 10% purines, and 6% solids.
Table 1 presents the characterization of the influent after homogeniza-
tion of the liquid (blood, purines, and washing water) and solid (offal
and scraps) fractions in a crusher to the appropriate granulometry.
Six experiments with different flow rates have been realized with
the same initial conditions of both biomass digester and the feed
stream, so as to avoid the problem of the cumulative effect of some
food. This means that after each experiment digester should reach
the initial conditions for all flow rates. In each experiment partial re-
sults and the evolution followed by the concentration of substrate
were measured.
Table 2 lists the final values of the main parameters obtained for
each experiment. One observes that the maximum production of bio-
gas, 575 ml/h (with experiment 5). While this is interesting in terms
of energy, in terms of biodegradation the CODf in the steady state re-
gime was too high.
One observes in Table 3 that, as the flow rate was increased, so did
most of the characteristic parameters, and the bacterial population
decreased, as expressed in the suspended VS (g/l), until the inhibition
of codigestion in experiment 6. This is observable due to the increase
in acidity, which will lead to an inhibition of methanogenic activity
and a decrease in suspended solids indicating a decline in the metha-
nogenic bacterial flora.
3. Results and discussion
To determine the optimal operating flow rate, it is first necessary
to evaluate the organic degradation or decontamination (represented
by the CODf) at the end of each experiment. Clearly, in terms of this
parameter exclusively, the lowest flow rate, 200 ml/day was the
optimal.
It can be seen that by experiment 5 (Table 2) a maximum biogas
production of 575 ml/h is obtained. This is interesting from the ener-
gy standpoint, but from the standpoint of degradation, the obtained
CODf is too high when reaching the steady state.
Table 2 shows that by increasing the flow rate in the experiments,
resulting in a reduction of the bacterial population expressed in vola-
tile suspended solids, until it leads to the inhibition of the co-
digestion in the experiment 6, which can be observed due to the acidity
increased, its consequences of inhibition of methanogenic activity due
to the decay of the population involved in the digestion and, conse-
quently, a reduction in suspended solids.
To determine the optimum operating conditions, and more specifi-
cally for the selection of the flow rate, first it is necessary to evaluate
the degradation or organic decontamination obtained at the end of
each experience. Taking into account the obtained values of COFf, it is
logical to conclude that the most favorable flow for maximum depura-
tion would be the minimum, i.e. 200 ml/day (Table 2).
Economically, however, the energy yield or biogas production
would make it more profitable to choose a higher flow rate, close to
that of inhibitory conditions. In particular, there was a maximum pro-
duction of nearly 600 ml/h of biogas for a flow rate of 537 ml/day.
Notwithstanding these two apparently opposing tendencies, in
the following paragraphs we shall justify the choice of optimal flow
rate with other variables.
To determine the optimal operating influent flow rate, we shall
evaluate the principal variables involved:
a) Maximum organic degradation. The contamination of the final
residues was quantified by means of the CODf. The solid and liquid
fractions were obtained by different separation procedures, yielding
the values of the COD of the liquid fraction given in Table 4.
From the raw slaughterhouse waste of 41 500 mg/l COD, after
Table 2
Final values of the main parameters for the different experiments, where Q is the flow
rate (ml/day), HRT is the hydraulic residence time (day), CODf is the chemical oxygen
demand (mg/l), VBiogas is the volume of biogas (ml/h), NTotal is the total nitrogen (g/l),
and CT total carbon (mg/l).

Experiment Q HRT CODf VBiogas NTotal CT

Table 1
Characterization of the influent substrate. (ml/day) (day) (mg/l) (ml/h) (g/l) (mg/l)

1 200 31 9450 350 0.91 820

Parameter Units Value Parameter Units Value
2 275 23 9750 400 0.96 832
pH 6.51 Total nitrogen g/l 1.27 3 350 18 10,250 450 1.03 840
CODtotal mg/l 40 500 Volatile acid g acid acetic/l 0.95 4 403.2 15 13,200 515 1.12 850
BOD5 mg/l 12 420 Alkalinity g CaCO3/l 1.1 5 537 12 14,025 575 1.23 865
VS g/l 8.56 Phosphates g/l 0.19 6 672 10 17,500 400 1.52 890
 A. Marcos et al. / Fuel Processing Technology 103 (2012) 178–182 181

Table 3 Table 5
Final values of the characteristic parameters for the different experiments, where Q is Parameters of the anaerobic codigestion yield for the different experiments.
the flow rate (ml/day), BOD5 is biological oxygen demand (mg/l), Acid is the acidity
(g/l), Alkalinity (g/l), VS is volatile solids (g/l), Phosphates (g/l), and Polyphenols (g/l). Experiment Q (ml/day) m3CH4/kg DQO kg SSV/kg DQO SMA mlCH4/gSSV day

1 200 0.755 0.105 71.40

Experiment Q BOD5 Acid Alkalinity VS Phosphates Polyphenols
2 275 0.536 0.096 89.36
(ml/ (mg/l) (g/l) (g/l) (g/l) (g/l) (g/l) 3 350 0.500 0.092 108.17
day) 4 403.2 0.579 0.090 139.20
5 537 0.527 0.080 179.68
1 200 7420 0.51 5.5 3.37 1.12 0.051
6 672 0.312 0.069 173.61
2 275 7750 0.62 5.9 3.05 1.23 0.046
3 350 8180 0.73 6.5 2.86 1.33 0.042
4 403.2 10,250 1.05 7.7 2.54 1.42 0.039
5 537 12,450 1.28 8 2.2 1.5 0.034
6 672 15,630 5.67 8.9 1.15 1.69 0.025
CODdegraded ¼ CODinfluent –CODefluent
−1 −1 −1
¼ 40500 mg l –10200 mg l ¼ 30250 mg l ð3Þ
filtering one obtains a final liquid fraction of 900 mg/l COD. This is
sufficient organic degradation for the liquid fraction to be dis- The laboratory digester used had a capacity of 6.2 l. The degraded
charged into the sewage system according to the municipal ordi- COD referred to this reactor would be:
nances (1500 mg/l limit) [12,13,16], whence it will ultimately be
−1
treated in the corresponding WWTP. The separated solid fraction is 30250mgl  6:2l ¼ 187550mg ¼ 0:1875kg: ð4Þ
composted, and can be used as a natural fertilizer due to the amount
of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphates, etc.) that it contains. No subse- In this experiment the total biogas production was 131 l. Hence,
quent degradation process is therefore required.
The regulations in force for discharges into the sewage network m3 biogas 0:131m3 biogas
¼ ¼ 0:698 ð5Þ
[12,13] are satisfied for the 200, 275, and 350 ml/day flow rates. kgCOD degraded 0:1875COD degraded
For higher flow rates, it would be necessary to apply another decon-
tamination process, such as a subsequent aerobic digestion proce- Assuming a methane percentage of 74%
dure. From the viewpoint of the degree of decontamination,
therefore: (i) experiments 4–6 (flow rates of 403.2, 537, and m3 CH 4
672 ml/day) would have to be rejected as not satisfying the regula- ¼ 0:698  0:74 ¼ 0:5170 ð6Þ
kgDQ O degraded
tions in force [12,13], and (ii) any of the first three flow rates (200,
275, and 350 ml/day) could be chosen, since they do meet the con- For a flow rate of 55 m 3/day, with a contaminant load of 40 g COD/
tamination limits. In principle, we would opt for experiment 3 (cor- l, the productivity is:
responding to 350 ml/day) as the optimal since it is the greatest flow
rate and corresponds to the shortest hydraulic residence time (HRT), l gCOD kgCOD
0:35  40 ¼ 14 ð7Þ
which industrially would mean a smaller digester, and hence greater day l day
viability of the installation because of lower economic costs.
b) Yield parameters. Table 5 lists the yield parameters for the six ex- One concludes from the trials that one can obtain 0.690 m 3 N of
periments. Of the 3 experiments that satisfy the regulations de- biogas per kg COD, with a concentration of 74% methane. The daily
scribed in the previous section, that corresponding to the quantity of biogas that can be generated with the waste from this
350 ml/day flow rate is the optimum choice. With this flow rate, slaughterhouse is therefore:
despite the degradation being less, there is a greater energy yield
3 3
than with experiments 1 and 2 (Table 2). 0:690m N=kgCOD  14 kgCOD=day ¼ 9:66m N=day ð8Þ
c) Energy evaluation. In this subsection, we shall analyze the possibility
of the energy evaluation of the biogas produced by an anaerobic di- Given that the LHV of methane is :¼ 9:530 kcal=m ðnÞ
3
ð9Þ
gester of slaughterhouse waste. 3
¼ 11:0814kWh=m N

According to the optimal data described above, for the optimal and that the biogas obtained has 74% of methane, the LHV of that bio-
flow rate of 350 ml/day, the influent, effluent, and degraded COD gas will be:
values are:
kWh
11:0814  0:74 ¼ 8:20 ð10Þ
m3 N
−1
CODinfluent ¼ 40500 mg l ð1Þ
This represents a daily energy generation of:

−1 3 3
CODefluent ¼ 10200 mg l ðHRT ¼ 17:7 daysÞ ð2Þ 9:66m N=day  8:20kWh=m N ¼ 79:21kWh=day ð11Þ

This energy can be used in a boiler to hear fluids of any type, or in

Table 4
an internal combustion engine coupled to an electric generator to
Degradation of the liquid fraction (effluent) for experiment 3. produce electrical power.
Making the same energy evaluation for the other experiments
Liquid fraction
(Table 6), and comparing the results, the greatest energy yield does
Separation procedures COD (mg/l) not correspond to the flow rate selected above as optimal (350 ml/
Filtration 900 day), but to experiment 1 (200 ml/day). The reason is that the
Decantation by gravity (1 day) 1735 lower flow rates require longer HRTs, and hence produce more bio-
Decantation by gravity (3 days) 1565 gas. Nonetheless, once the steady state regime is reached, the hourly
Decantation by gravity (6 days) 1348
production rises with increasing flow rate (Table 2). In Table 7,
182 A. Marcos et al. / Fuel Processing Technology 103 (2012) 178–182

Table 6 excessive construction cost, from all the experiences realized that
Energy evaluation. have been considering a TRH of 18 days. This is a new result, since
Experiment Q CODDegraded VBiogas m3Biogas/ m3NBiogas/ Wh/day the TRH of other plants with this type of digester are higher.
ml/day kg m3 kg DQO day With respect to the solid fraction decanted, also it will be seen
1 200 0.19251 0.202805 1.053 8.428 69.108 through the composting necessary process, how it can be used as a
2 275 0.19065 0.1426 0.748 8.228 67.467 soil amendment for regenerative features and performance similar
3 350 0.18755 0.1309 0.698 9.771 80.124 or even superior to some fertilizers of the market.
4 403.2 0.16926 0.13735 0.811 13.087 107.317
The liquid fraction can be used also as liquid fertilizer, or a depura-
5 537 0.16414 0.12125 0.739 15.867 130.107
6 672 0.1426 0.0866 0.607 16.324 133.857 tor can be installed to reduce the contamination to permitted values
that could be conducted directly to the river. This implies a new in-
version, but it could be necessary for industries installed in places
Table 7 without public waste water conducts. In case of directing these wastes
Energy evaluation in the steady state regime. to a public river, it should reach the values shown in Table 1 [7] that
Experiment Q CODDegraded VBiogás m3Biogas/ m3NBiogas/ Wh/day have three levels of exigency corresponding to Tables 1, 2 and 3.
ml/day kg m3 kg DQO day

1 200 0.19251 0.147 0.764 6.112 50.118

2 275 0.19065 0.168 0.881 9.691 79.466 Acknowledgments
3 350 0.18755 0.189 1.008 14.112 115.718
4 403.2 0.16926 0.216 1.276 20.579 168.750
The authors are grateful to the Exma. Diputatción de Badajoz and
5 537 0.164145 0.241 1.468 31.533 258.568
6 672 0.1426 0.168 1.178 31.665 259.650 the Junta of Extremadura (Board of Agriculture and the Environment)
for the financial support for this project.

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